Beaver & Krause • In A Wild Sanctuary (Warner Brothers, 1970)

It's a quiet Sunday. Outside the air is occasionally punctured by the cries of a child playing...odd though, no one else seems to be joining in...I'm reading the paper online, amazed how long the Presidential  campaign has lasted...it seems so 2007...and while this day lazily moves from one side of the sky to the other, playing in the background is Beaver & Krause's In A Wild Sanctuary.  This is what I was attempting to listen to when the next door neighbors went about their dally routine...I guess on Sunday they play pretend behave for the Lord.

Beaver & Krause will be readily known to those who read album liner notes. 

In the late 60's any record that had a Moog on it most likely was played by either Paul Beaver or Bernie Krause.  For a quick reference play Star Collector by The Monkees and you'll have the concise Beaver & Krause play book. But where other players using the Moog were interested in either mimicking regular instruments or creating far out sounds without any restraint, B&K had a sort of organic approach. There is a warmth to their choice of timbre, which came most likely from their excursions in field recording. This is used to great effect on Walking Green Algae Blues. Sounds of animals in residence at the San Francisco Zoo are treated and used as backdrop to a slow Chicago Blues riff. I normally detest when blues riffs are used, it just seems so easy. Yet the reason why it works here is the laconic of the playing allows the nature sounds to take center place.

There is a theme prevalent to In A Wild Sanctuary; contrast and similarity. Side one is devoted to electronics. The opening track the only one with a back beat, from there on its floating music that never gets soft. A happy balance is struck between melody and sound. Stately church like hymns are wrapped in  spacey electronics. By the time side two comes in with a cheeky take on Thus Spake Zarathustra, heralding the new focus; electro acoustic sound and rhythm. The electronics work now behind a band (like that mentioned in Walking Green Algae Blues), or are abandoned all together.  There is a somewhat suspicious sounding field recording done in Peoples Park. It's just a little too clean, but if it really is a live take done on the outside then B&K's studio prowess were quite formidable.  Just about finishing up side two is a spoken word piece over a bed of proto industrial music, people saying the word war with all forms of contempt and incredulity. The final track is back to the electronics of the first side, but this time with a brief contemplative tone poem. After all, someone said war, you know those things aren't fun...

Please click on the review title for selected track: So Long As The Waters Flow